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Southern Sierran
HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT DESIGNATION FOR GRIFFITH PARK?
BY CAROL HENNING
| | An
urban oasis in perpetuity?
PHOTO COURTESY OF SIERRA CLUB ARCHIVES |
The
Griffith Charitable Trust, headed by Col. Griffith’s great grandson,
has submitted to the City of Los Angeles, an application to designate
Griffith Park a Historic-Cultural Monument.
Having seen Europe’s
public parks, Col. Griffith J. Griffith decided that, in order to
become a great city, Los Angeles needed a park of its own. In 1896, he
deeded 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz property to the city of Los
Angeles. This donation, the largest private land gift Los Angeles has
ever received, included the condition that the land forever remain a
place accessible free of charge to all residents—a retreat for the
“plain people.” Col. Griffith realized public parks were a “safety
valve of great cities.”
Periodically, however, plans to
commercialize the Park, and urges to make it pay for itself, have
ridden roughshod over Col. Griffith’s vision of a “place of rest and
relaxation for the masses.”
Griffith Park is essentially an urban
island, separating the San Fernando Valley from Hollywood. It is one of
the biggest municipal parks in the U.S. and also one of the wildest. It
lies wholly within an area considered one of 34 biodiversity hotspots
for conservation worldwide due to its high levels of diversity,
endemism, and the degree to which it is threatened.
In addition to
its biodiversity, Griffith Park contains buildings that are inherently
valuable examples of architectural styles. The Observatory (1935) is an
example of Classical Moderne and is itself a Historic-Cultural
Monument. Its architects designed Los Angeles City Hall. The Greek
Theatre (1930) was built in the Second Greek Revival style, and the
Municipal Plunge (1927) is an example of Spanish Colonial Revival
style. Moreover, many of the structures in the Park—retaining walls,
culverts and channels—were built in “Park Style” by workers employed in
the federal assistance programs of the 1930s.
The City of Los
Angeles Cultural Heritage Ordinance, enacted in 1962, has made possible
the designation of buildings and sites as Historic-Cultural Monuments
(HCM). As of September 2007, Los Angeles had over 900 HCMs. The
Cultural Heritage Commission has five members, who are appointed by the
mayor. An HCM can be “any site (including significant trees or other
plant life located thereon), building or structure of particular
historic or cultural significance to the City of Los Angeles….” Open
spaces such as Echo Park, individual trees, groups of trees and natural
features such as Eagle Rock may be designated HCMs.
Some of the
criteria for Historic-Cultural Monument eligibility are: that the
nominee reflects or exemplifies the broad cultural, political, economic
or social history of a community; that it involves historic personages
or events in the main currents of local history; that it contains
examples of architecture inherently valuable for the study of period,
style or method of construction; that it includes notable work of
master builders, designers or architects.
The Department of City
Planning, Office of Historic Resources, reviews applications for HCM
designation, and reports to the Cultural Heritage Commission,
recommending whether a formal consideration of the nomination is
appropriate. An initial hearing and a vote follow. Once a nomination is
officially taken under consideration, a stay on demolition or
substantial alteration at the site goes into effect. After a tour of
the site, a final staff report by the Office of Historic Resources
evaluates whether or not the property meets HCM criteria. If approved,
the nomination goes to the City Council’s Planning and Land Use
Management Committee, which then makes a recommendation to the full
City Council.
“Preservation allows us to retain the best of our
shared heritage,” explains Ken Bernstein, formerly Director of
Preservation Issues for the L.A. Conservancy and currently Manager of
the Office of Historic Resources. HCM designation means that the most
significant or character-defining historic elements of a property
should be retained. New additions are allowed but should be compatible
with a site’s historic architecture. HCM designation requires a
Cultural Heritage review for proposed exterior and interior alterations
in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for
Rehabilitation, the nationally accepted criteria for evaluating change
to historic properties. The designation also allows the Cultural
Heritage Commission to object to the issuance of a demolition for 180
days with an additional 180-day extension possible upon approval of the
City Council. HCM status activates CEQA, the California Environmental
Quality Act, which protects historic buildings and other entities from
adverse impacts without an environmental review. The environmental area
at and surrounding the project is assessed in terms of alterations to
the land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, noise, socio-economic
conditions, health risks, traffic and objects of historical or aesthetic
significance. Alternatives to proposed actions affecting the environment must be considered.
A
Draft Master Plan, currently being revised by a working group of
concerned citizens, re-invents the Park as a more densely built, more
commercial “destination.” HCM designation will likely help to keep
Griffith Park as it is—an outcome that the majority of people who
commented on the Draft Master Plan said they favored.
And, speaking of masterplans, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Masterplan observes: “The level of stewardship for a community’s
historic resources says much about that city’s awareness of its identity.”
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